A video has turned up on YouTube that shows adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen repeatedly dodging a question directly asked about Adobe's huge price discrepancies for software in Australia compared to other parts of the world. The person on the video asking the question repeatedly asks why Australians are charged as much is AU$1400 more for traditional software delivered over the internet than people in the United States.

This is a common complaint by Australian users who have long complained that they are price gouged by major companies such as Apple, Adobe, and Microsoft. In fact, pricing is such a source of contention within Australia that executives from Adobe, Microsoft, and Apple have been summoned to appear before Australian Parliament to answer questions specifically about pricing.

All three of these companies had previously refused to appear before Parliament.

In the video, the Adobe CEO continually dodges multiple questions about the Creative Suite and instead talks about Adobe's Creative Cloud offering. Adobe did recently reduce the price of its Creative Cloud subscription service from AU$62.99 to AU$49.99 matching prices in the United States.

Apparently, that price matching did not extend to people who want to purchase the Creative Suite as a download.

Updated 2/14/2013 @ 2PM ESTNews.com.au reports that it's actually cheaper for Australians to purchase a roundtrip ticket from Australia to Los Angeles to obtain a U.S version of Adobe Creative Suite.

This is not uncommon all over the world. Australia is further away so for shipped goods there is a price difference and taxes will always make prices different in different countries but gouging is common.

A recently built system cost almost US$1,000 more sourcing the parts locally in Korea. The same parts bought from Newegg all retailed for at least 30% cheaper. Yes, even Samsung SSD (840 Pro Series) were more expensive in Korea than the USA.

In this global world of downloadable software there is no reason outside of local tax that can justifiably warrant a higher price. Any company that has anything like a market leading position like Adobe, Apple and Microsoft rip customers off at every opportunity.

My version of Win 7 came from the USA via a mate and cost all of $300. $700 in Australia is just rude.

Australia is closer to China than the US so by your reasoning it should be cheaper in Australia, the reality is the cost of shipping is a very small part of the price, in the case of professional software costing thousands I doubt shipping would be more than 0.01% of the cost.

I'm not speaking about digital purchases. But the reason physical goods cost so much in Australia? It's not a conspiracy. It's Australian Protectionist policies that have run rampant. Doing a bit of research, and I'm shocked to see how bad the situation is there.

Basically retailers are prohibited in Australia from shopping around for the best prices on good, and are instead forced to go through "approved" wholesalers, who jack the price up.

"As a small business owner I have to disagree. I want to charge comparative prices for my goods but it is not viable under the way I have to purchase my product. Currently I have to buy through a middleman in Australia. They own the rights to my product, they set their wholesale price (that is comparative to the US RRP) and then on top of that I have to put my retail price. Keeping in mind I am not allowed to by-pass the distributor or I will either get sued or blacklisted from them (and potentially other distributors in my industry).

As an employer, wages are also significantly higher here, and that has to be taken into consideration as well as paying a lot more more rent for my physical location than in other countries.

At the end of the day retailers get constantly vilified, but I can assure you that I am not out to gouge my customers, I want them to get the best price possible. I also don’t want to lose my business to the overseas market - but there is no way I can charge comparable prices."

Absolutely agree with your post. Australia is one of the most overgoverned countries on Earth. They have more laws than people practically and the formidable array of policies that prevent competition are simple unbelievable.

But nonetheless, there is no justifiable reason beside higher taxes that downloadable software should be more expensive in some countries compared to others. Australia tries its best to ruin competition but that should not affect prices to such a degree, should it?